Hartnell, who has taught in Westerville City Schools for 16 years, has an unconventional teaching style. A water balloon fight teaches students about the Civil War; his classroom is covered floor-to-ceiling with posters and bumper stickers, and is complete with a Pharaoh’s throne and a guillotine. A mural painted by a former student – depicting Mel Gibson as William Wallace in Braveheart, Mt. Rushmore and a Navy chopper – cover another wall of the room.
Hartnell has a slew of costumes that he wears for teaching, from a replica of Russell Crowe’s Gladiator outfit, to a Crusading Knight Templar – complete with 75 pounds of chain mail – to 1950s greasers and 1970s hippies. And that’s just a select few